Shadow of Doubt
by Leader of the Otaku Corps
Summary: It was a dream. The child with a burden. A burden that became an asset. The child that changed an empire. It was a reality. But can it truly be? Strong!Naru. Lots of Team 7 bashing for their general uselessness! Something else I'm not gonna tell either...
1. Chapter 1

Shadow of Doubt

A young boy meandered down a dingy alley, humming some annoying tune and smiling inanely.

This was his first time out of his house. The Hokage was tied up with some appearance at the festival, so couldn't watch over him. Skipping slightly, he ran into what looked like a pair of legs, and there was a smash on the ground next to him. On his knees, the boy bowed Samurai-style. (A/N Samurai is when you're kneeling, you put your hands in front of your knees and press your head onto them.)

"…Sumimasen?" he asked, looking up at the man. He then knew that sorry wouldn't suffice.

-time skip no jutsu-

-タイムスキップノジュツ-

A boy in a crimson mid-thigh training yukata was dancing with two fans. With his eyes closed, and his platinum-blonde hair caressing his knees, he looked like an angel.

'An angel of death…' thought the old Sandaime. He never forgave himself. 'Why did your life turn this way?' The boy reached up to his hitai-ite, re-adjusting it over his eyes so he could continue practise his training without suffocating.

"Nee-sama!" The Sandaime looked over further, to see his grandson running up to the blonde.

"Naruto-nii-sama! Are you really taking us out?" Konohamaru asked, jumping, with a huge smile plastered on his face. Naruto looked at him for a while.

"Yes, I suppose I will." Naruto graced Konohamaru with one of his miniscule shadows of a smile. For Konohamaru, this was enough. He beamed bright enough to rival the sun, and shot out a quick 'Thank you' before dashing inside the house attached to the training grounds to tell his 'Corps'. Minutes later, the whole three members of the Corps were collected around Naruto and waiting. Soundlessly, Naruto headed off with Konohamaru and co. following him.

"Where do you want to go to today, Konohamaru-chan, Moegi-chan, Udon?" The three had to strain their ears to hear him, but answered none-the-less.

"Can we go to the weapons shop today, nii-sama?" Konohamaru asked.

"Can we, Naruto-nii?" chorused the other two.

"It would seem I have no choice." Naruto let a smile ghost around his lips. It was amazing how much these three children could bring out his emotions. It would seem that he'd always been impartial to children.

"Naruto-nii? We're here…" Konohamaru trailed off, and Naruto turned his head a bit.

"I… know…" he said. He had been lost in thought, but maybe thought was too strong a word. It was more like meditation. He didn't think any more. He just… was. He ushered the children into the weapons shop, and showed them to the least lethal area. "If you need me," he said, "I will be in the isle to the left. That one." He said, pointing to an isle in the distance. The children all nodded and scattered off to look at the new selection of shuriken.

"Kaien-san," Naruto nodded to the shopkeeper at the desk. "Would you have my new weapon ready?" The man at the counter smiled and pulled out a package wrapped in deep purple fabric from under the counter.

"Here you are, sir. Made just up to order, for you. What a weird weapon though, never seen anything like…" The old man looked like he wanted answers, and Naruto didn't like questions. "15000 Ryo, was it?" he asked, pushing a rather large bundle of notes towards the shop-keeper. All the poor man could do was stare. Where had the mysterious young man gotten all this money from? Naruto just shook off the old man's stares and walked over to the children.

"Have you done everything you wanted?" he asked in his soft-spoken voice. All three children nodded. Even though they hadn't gotten proficient enough to buy their own weapons, molesting them was still a big enough pleasure. "Let's go then." Naruto and the Konohamaru Corps left the shop. "I'm being placed in a team today," Naruto mentioned, "So I have to go to the academy. Can you bear going there to wait for me, or do you want to go home?"

"We want to be there to congratulate nii-sama when he gets put in a group, right, guys?" Moegi said, elbowing her friends. They all agreed, and Naruto walked on, letting a smile flicker in his eyes for less than a second, before walking again, the three friends all happy at getting this emotion out of him. They bounded along with new energy to the academy.

---

Uchiha Sasuke did not need team-mates. He was a loner, an avenger. Any person who got in his way would get hurt or slow him down. He couldn't have that, so he isolated himself from everyone. Sadly, this didn't have the same effect he had hoped it would. Rather, it made people like him **more** than before, for no reason. However, any way you looked at it, Uchiha Sasuke did **not** need team-mates. They were a nuisance. Said he. And who was ANYONE to question the Great Uchiha Sasuke about any of his views? His word _was_ law, after all. The aforementioned Uchiha was currently staring at the wall _behind_ the black board, because he's just that cool. He can do stuff like that. Well, not really.

'Damned Sharingan. Where are you when I need you? I want to see into the next room! I don't know why, but I have this inkling it might be fun… if I knew what fun was…' Iruka looked behind himself to see what would be so interesting.

"Sasuke, avert ye gaze; yonder wall hath done you no harm!" All the reply he got was the Uchiha actually turning his Uchiha Stare O' Death™ (Patent Pending) towards the door, instead. Iruka sighed. 'Be careful what you ask for, I guess…' He should have known by now how troublesome academy students could be. 'Damned pompous, holier-than-thou-attituded swine…' We'll cut that off there. "Anyhew, today is the day when you officially become Konohagakure shinobi. Genin, to be exact! We will be announcing your teams, which have been handpicked in order to put your strengths and weaknesses together to create the ultimate fighting unit. So, with no further ado, Team 1 is…"

-time skip no jutsu-

-タイムスキップノジュツ-

"Team 7," Iruka called out. He always hated this day. Every year, the same snooze-inducing rotas, roll calls, and team-building. His throat was raw already from calling out all these names, and why did they all have to be so long-winded? Why? Whywhywhywhywhy? Stopping his diatribe, he restarted his sentence, as some of the children were looking at him with this… in their eyes…

"Team 7 will be Haruno Sakura," All the boys, and the girls, in the class hoped they weren't in this 'troublesome' girl's team. "Uchiha Sasuke," The Famous Uchiha let out a small sigh, but inwardly he was tearing his hair out, and also strangling someone who looked suspiciously like his teammate. Still, maybe his future could be salvaged slightly? If his last remaining teammate was not too bad…? Iruka coughed to startle Sasuke out of his manic laughter, and announced "Your last teammate will be Sarutobi Naruto."

Sasuke smiled slightly. Finally, the kind of attention he deserved. The Hokage's son! His musings were cut short, however, by a certain pinkie's screeching.

"But Iruka-sensei, there is no one in our class called Naruto, let alone a Sarutobi! Aren't your facts a little bit skewed?"

Iruka sighed. Why would no one ever believe him? For god's sake, "There is a boy named Naruto in this class, now. Come on in, Naruto."

-A/N no jutsu-

Um… all I can say is… very short… Sorry about that. If anyone reads this, tell me if you want me to continue? Ne?


	2. Chapter 2

"_But Iruka-sensei, there is no one in our class called Naruto, let alone a Sarutobi! Aren't your facts a little bit skewed?"_

_Iruka sighed. Why would no one ever believe him? For god's sake, "There is a boy named Naruto in this class, now. Come on in, Naruto."_

---

The old door, worn down with years of being targeted by the Uchiha Glare O' Death™, slowly rattled open. An angelic figure of serenity shuffled into the room, straight up to the front of the class. There was a collective gasp as the male population thought how cute this girl was. There was a collective squee as the female population thought how cute this guy was. He mumbled something incoherent (probably due to all the heavy breathing going on in the room at that moment), bowed, and walked towards the empty seat.

The **only** empty seat.

The one that no one ever dared sit in, for fear of facing the wrath of… the _fan girls_. Oblivious, he continued his small steps, erasing any chance that he had just been walking up towards… say, the window. Although why he would be doing this is incomprehensible, and frankly, beside the point, so I won't go there.

His shuffling stopped, and he placed himself on the seat with surprising accuracy for someone who was wearing something over their eyes. He flicked his hair over his shoulder in that way that cool people do. Sasuke could feel his blood evaporating from it boiling for so long. Why didn't he have long hair? He wanted to do the flippy thing!

Naruto frowned. Wait. Let's revise that. Naruto frowned _as much as his stoicisity and underused facial muscles would let him_. Which basically meant: He looked kinda constipated, but not really frowning, for confusion is an un-shinobi-like emotion. _Yeah_… He could feel this person's anger, which didn't really make sense. What did he ever do to them? He could see that this guy was going to die from lack of water in the blood stream if his blood boiled for much later, so being the **innocent**, and **helpful** (stress, stress) individual he was, he stared (in as much of the meaning of the word as it could mean, in his state) at the person he was sitting next to. It didn't help.

Meanwhile, the different teams' senseis were dribbling in. There was only one team left without- Okay, scrub that. They were the only team left without their teacher there, and it was pissing Iruka off.

"I'm sorry, kids, but I can't afford to spend any more time here waiting with you. I have to grade papers, and then nurse some of my accumulated wounds from working with the littlies, and…" Team 7 crawled away, very slightly, once they felt the emocity radiating off their sensei, and were rather scared when they saw the background turn blue with little squiggly black lines all over it. "…and THEN I've got to file some paperwork on the latest student that died under my care, and of course…" Naruto filtered out his voice. He could tell it would be a _very_ long time until he stopped.

-time skip no jutsu-

-タイムスキップノジュツ-

Three hours later, Iruka was still listing his work in a near-hysterical tone, Sasuke was nursing his anime-vein marks (he'd counted 7 visible ones so far), Naruto was in a meditative state and Sakura was passed out from compulsive drooling disorder. That was the scene their teacher was greeted with when he poofed in. Except that Sasuke was now nursing 13 near-burst veins instead of 7.

"First impression: Weird. Roof. Now." Naruto nodded, very timidly, and Sasuke fish-slapped Sakura to wake her up from her hotness-induced… slumber. They all made their way up the stairs to the roof, and got there in under an hour. Pays to make people wait.

"Second impression: You take after me. Just what I need." No one answered this. In any shape or form. At all. Nothing. Not a peep. Nada. Just like no one will realise the authoress of this fic is just writing this to up the number of words. No one. Heehee! Any hew; their teacher had this freakish silver hair that was at least as big as his head and then some, with a mask covering the lower half of his face, and his hitai-ite covering his left eye.

"So, introductions. Do it. Now. Go. You there. With the pink hair. Introduce yourself." 'The one with the pink hair' snorted in a very _ladylike_ fashion (yeah right), and said, "Sensei, shouldn't you go first? Show us what to do and stuff?" Their teacher sighed.

"Name's Hatake Kakashi. My hair's this colour naturally. I use herbal essences to get it this size. The highlights are natural. _Yes_, there are highlights. I cut it myself. Now, you, pinkie." Naruto regarded this information with well-disguised scorn. Even though this Hatake character only said things about his hair, Naruto could still pick his information apart. The fact that he had felt it necessary to assure them that his hair was silver naturally, told him that it was actually prematurely grey, probably stress-related. This probably meant that he used to have a higher ranking job, maybe as a hunter-nin or ANBU. The fact that his body gave out more pulses a second during that phrase, in a certain pattern, just proved that he was lying. He could hear it in his voice as well. The slight wavering in his vocal chords. 'Hatake Kakashi, huh? I will be certain to check up on him in tou-sama's records.'

Kakashi took out a toy dubbed as 'The Plushie of Truth' and threw it to Sakura, who caught it. Kinda. "Your turn!" he sang towards her.

"Well, I'm Haruno Sakura. I… um… Sasuke? I… I… heehee! Ino… grr… hiss…" Naruto disregarded her as a head case, and reached out to catch The Plushie of Truth. He started to speak in his almost nonexistent voice.

"I'm Sarutobi Naruto. I like plants. I don't like waiting." He looked at a certain legendary jounin. If said jounin could see that look, he would be fried. "That's all I feel like saying." If no-one else was going to say anything of significance, then he'd do the same. He'd be damned if he'd sit around, giving away his secrets at a moments notice. In a moment of weakness, he lobbed The Plushie of Truth at Sasuke, who started the process of glaring a hole into it. Anyone passing by would swear they saw smoke rising off its teletubbie screen.

"I am Sasuke of the legendary Uchiha clan. All who come from lesser clans, may ye bow down before me! Muahahahaha, coff, coff… I will kill my foolish older brother if it's the last thing I do!" Naruto raised his frail voice for long enough to say "With all that arrogance, it probably will be the last thing you do." The Uchiha Glare O' Death™ faltered a bit, and Sasuke spluttered, lost for words.

"Yeah, well, at least I don't wear my hitai-ite over my eyes like some blind guy would! Have it!"

…

All was silent.

The mysterious blonde with his quiet voice, his oh-so-high-cut-and-extremely-leg-showing-and-sexy-slash-seductive yukata and weirdly placed hitai-ite stood up. Elegantly. And with Finesse. Somehow, he got his (somewhere in the range of) 5-cm-long hemline to billow out behind him as he left, geta clacking along the concrete as he kept a steady pace, emotions in check.

Sasuke felt that he might have hit somewhere close to home.

-time skip no jutsu-

-タイムスキップノジュツ-

It was dark when Naruto got back to the Sarutobi residence. He was looking pale, and his knuckles were covered with blood, but no bruises or cuts. Everyone knew to keep away from this person, for this was not Naruto. This was someone else. They knew not where he had been. Scaring the local wildlife, no doubt. The only reason they let him keep on with this was because one day he might kill the daimyo's cat. That, and the fact that they would be killed for taking away this person's only form of emotional release.

The Sandaime Hokage cringed from his vantage point at the crystal ball. He murmured a quick prayer that whatever anime was… well… tonight, he wished their soul a swift journey to the afterlife. Except that cat. That cat should go to hell. The Sandaime also cast a longer prayer that his next pay cheque would be coming soon. He paid his last respects to the latest additions to the junkyard.

'Log, you and I had only briefly met before your untimely demise, but your…' He had no idea what tributes a tree could have, so he said 'heritage… was… pure? May your inanimate soul go to training ground heaven. I feel your pain.' This was true, because as Naruto decimated the logs in the training grounds, he also decimated the Hokage's pay cheque. He wished that Naruto would talk about his problems, instead of bottling it all up inside until it was uncontrollable. Poor rabbits…

---

Naruto was dead to the world. He traipsed up the several staircases in the house, heavy footfalls making not a sound, until he reached the ladder to the loft. With expert arms, he hoisted himself up in three fluid movements, and settled into his room. In a subconscious action, he pulsed chakra through the room. Nothing odd present. He could relax.

His room was basically the whole top floor of the house. All the walls were a warm wood, and the ceiling sloped to about 2 feet off the ground. He had the greatest leather couch known to man in the centre left of his room, opposite the Super-Duper Sound System. His queen-sized bed was in the far left corner, next to a door going into his bathroom. There was a gigantic fireplace on the opposite wall, with a huge mirror above it, the sole thing left from his old apartment. He slowly walked over to the mirror, clawing at the knots that kept his hitai-ite on. He lowered it from his face and stared blankly at his reflection. It was a ritual from the old days. He would always stare at his eyes. Sometimes he would stare for hours, trying to find the thing everyone else saw that made them look at him… in that way.

It was a useless habit. Today, it made him annoyed at **his** uselessness.

'Dammit… He didn't have to say _that_ of all things. I… I…' In a moment of rage, re reached up to punch the wall. It wasn't until he heard the shards hit the floor that he realised what he'd done.

His last connection…

He collapsed on the ground, crying out what was left of his heart.

-A/N no jutsu-

I fell down the stairs today with a bowl of pasta. All that anyone could say was 'Gee, you got pasta sauce all over the stairs.' Personally, I think it was blood.

I'm gonna be moving onto longer chapters in the future, after I get past all the story-setting. See you next post!


	3. Chapter 3

The words 'like death warmed up' paled in comparison with some people in the morning. These people included Kakashi, which is why he spent several hours each morning putting on layer after layer of foundation, concealer, and other unmentionable substances. However, this also had the unforgettable consequence of making him at least three hours late each morning.

Kakashi wanted to make a good impression on his team. Not a good **first** impression, just a good impression, so he thought that he would get somewhere on time. He set up everything for the next day, setting the alarm clock, filling the coffee-maker with water, even setting out a pair of matching socks on his chair so he wouldn't look like a numpty. He snuggled down into bed, and thought nice thoughts.

-time skip no jutsu-

-タイムスキップノジュツ-

The next day, Kakashi arrived bright and early at the training grounds he'd told Sasuke and Sakura to meet him at. Naruto would know, naturally. I mean, he's not the Hokage's son for anything. So he waited. And waited some more. But that was okay, because he got there a bit early, anyway. So he waited some more. Aaand some more… and so…me… more…

-time skip no jutsu-

-タイムスキップノジュツ-

Late is to Kakashi as irrational is to Sakura, so when Sakura saw her sensei asleep underneath a tree… she freaked… big time. As a result of this, she passed out into a spazzy fit on the floor. Eventually she ran out of energy and stopped convulsing, but it took a while.

-time skip no jutsu-

-タイムスキップノジュツ-

Later, Sasuke came by the tree. Seeing his sensei and teammate under the same tree, practically on top of each other, both passed out and tired-looking, didn't exactly give out the best signals to him. He, too, fell, but to the misfortunes of nasal blood loss.

-time skip no jutsu-

-タイムスキップノジュツ-

Even later, and this was surpassing even Kakashi's standards, Naruto strolled along in his billowing yukata. The scene was almost that of a massacre. The teacher and two students were all piled on top of each other. Kakashi, without his concealer, or foundation, looked more dead than alive, and Sasuke looked like his soul had moved on to better places. Naruto (almost) snorted. He could smell the blood spattered all over the three corp- bodies, Naruto, bodies, but he knew they weren't dead. Their (faint) pulses told him that they were alive.

**Useless little wretch.**

They _were _alive.

**You're soiling our country.**

**You don't deserve to live!**

'_Stop it! Get out of my' _"_HEAD!_" One of the bodies twitched, but he didn't think he'd woken them up.

His suspicions were confirmed when one of the bodies, he couldn't tell who, groaned, and rolled over, suffocating one of the other hapless… things.

_Chink._

'Whats…?'

_Chinky, chink._

'That's… a bell…' Naruto frowned inwardly. Kakashi couldn't be doing the bell test. That was just so easy, especially now, because he was so prone. But thinking about it, he could turn this to his advantage… Without a second thought, he reached down and plucked the bells from his sensei's belt, and then proceeded to poke Kakashi, in the eye, with a random chopstick he found in the folds of his… yukata?

_Poke._

"Mmhf…"

_Poke._

"Muhnamawhuamuh…"

_Poke._

"Schmanalamanaa…"

_Po-_

"Oh for god's sake, my eye! My last remaining good eye! Get off it, get off, get off, get off, get off!!!" Naruto raised an eye at his somewhat childish behaviour (Personally, I can sympathise. I mean, he was getting poked in the eye…), and in response lifted up the two bells and jangled them around a bit.

"Um…" Kakashi stumbled a bit, and a sadistic smirk edged its way on to the normally impassive blonde's face. "Ehehehe… Where was the teamwork…?" This was not what the blonde had expected, but still, it only proved to make the smirk widen itself.

"Ah, but Kakashi-san," Naruto's voice wafted its way over in the smallest of waves, "There was teamwork. Sasuke-san and Sakura-san came over first to immobilise you. I then took the bells. Is that not proficient enough teamwork? Is that not looking underneath the underneath?" The special jounin's self-proclaimed 'one good eye' widened at his own signature phrase being used. How much did this boy know?

Naruto moved away to get the remaining two unconscious bodies to awakeness by a swift, but firm, jab to the eye with his Chopstick of Awesomeness, and was answered by two shrieks, no, sorry, one shriek, one manly squeal, of pain.

"Uh… Congratulations, my students. It would appear that you've passed." He was urged to continue by dribble of killing intent courtesy of the blonde we all know and love. "Uh, yeah, missions. Let's go… yeah…"

-time skip no jutsu-

-タイムスキップノジュツ-

17 of the same mission later, Team 7 was, understandably, getting **rather**… bored, yeah, of capturing the daimyo's cat, again, and again, and again. You could almost say it showed.

Oh, how convenient. It would seem that Team 7 is just now walking past us to enter the Hokage's office. Now you can see what I mean.

-Bill Oddie no jutsu-

-ビッゥオッヂエノジュツ-

_Observe the quiet 'Sarutobi' bird. It is said that this specimen is usually seen with monkey-like features, and a calm exterior. This seems to be a rather unusual case, as there are none of the said outstanding features, and this particular bird is expressing slight annoyance._

_The Sasukus Maximus seems to be carrying itself with less poise that usual, an unusual trait for a so pompous, yet stoic, creature. As usual, the Sasukus Maximus has a companion._

_Observe, now, the _fan girl_. You should stay back at all costs, this is one type of leper- I mean, lion, you never want to cross. She seems to be guarding the Sasukus Maximus with special ferocity today. I wonder what has gotten the animal kingdom so out of kilter…_

-dispel-

-かい-

And, so sang the gospel, for it was the truth. Not only was the team lacking energy, but Kakashi was so far behind that the only thing you could use to tell if it was him was his fluorescent orange smut book. In fact, by the time he had reached the door, Team 7 had already been inside the Hokage's office, and given the mission report. The Copy-nin just slid open the door, 'With the stealth of an ANBU…' though Naruto, and sidled in behind his charges.

"And so ended our mission," proclaimed he.

"I feel I am slowly losing my will to live," proclaimed the avenger. Two people in the room snorted. One rude cough-truthful-cough person murmured "No surprise there…"

"I…" The whole room turned around to look at the blonde. These were his first words in weeks. "I…" he continued, "Feel… almost the same way. Hokage-sama, I implore you, give us a higher-ranked mission." Team 7 and instructor gaped. Naruto was actually **supporting** their cause? Unheard of! The Sandaime sighed. This was the first emotion Naruto had shown in God knew how long. He could not give him one, just to try and get a bigger rise out of him, but that could be reversing all his hard work.

"I accept your request for a higher-ranked mission, and I propose this as a solution." There was a collective gasp at this willingness to agree to their requests. "It's a C-rank, in the Country of Waves. Time… maybe up to a month, 5 weeks. You are to escort a bridge-builder back to his homeland, and protect him until his work is done. Do you accept this mission?" There was unanimous nodding from 4 people, and the Hokage, on the ball as always, snapped his fingers for the doors to open. The slurred language of a drunk greeted them through the half-opened door.

"Whooo're theese brrats? They couldeeen't look after a pet cactus, let alone liddle ole meee…"

Naruto's nose twitched. He never forgot a scent, and he knew this one.

-A/N no jutsu-

Still short, but I can write short chapters quicker, and I find good cut-off points this way.

Please do comment with any ideas you have for words to make the story more interesting, especially names. I don't want to have to just call Naruto 'Naruto' or 'The Blonde'. It's annoying me, and I'm the author!

Also, if you are, or know someone who's epileptic, please don't take exception to the spazzy fit scene. I mean it purely as light Sakura bashing, and I mean no offense.


	4. Chapter 4

"_Whooo're theese brrats? They couldeeen't look after a pet cactus, let alone liddle ole meee…"_

_Naruto's nose twitched. He never forgot a scent, and he knew this one._

---

He screwed his eyes shut in concentration, but regretted it immediately. Thousands of incoherent thoughts streamed through his mind, so fast and furious that he could see them forming and flitting across his mind. The first thing he'd seen forever. He was mentally analysing this smell and comparing it against all the thousands he had tracked and catalogued in the back of his head.

_Shattered glass._

His eyes clicked open after that one thought. All processes in his mind stopped at this one simple action. His cerulean eyes, trimmed around the pupil with deepest purple, flicked up to the man sauntering through the door. His somewhat simplified brain processes offered him one option, so he took it. Using his considerable speed, amplified slightly with chakra, he appeared in front of the man in under a second. The jinchuuriki wrapped his hand around the man's throat, and pressed down hard, but not quite hard enough to stop his breathing. All this happened in less than two seconds.

"Naruto!" yelled the Sandaime, "What are you doing? This is the man you are supposed to **protect**!" Naruto growled at this word, and his hand tightened on the old man's neck. Unseen, a single unsheathed claw trailed around the back of his neck, drawing blood. To his credit, the man did not cry out, but by hearing his heartbeat, he could tell how terrified he was.

"Do you like that your life is at my mercy? My infallible mercy… I could end your life right now." The Sandaime sucked his breath in. How could he explain this, if Naruto's client died **by his own hands**? "However," he whispered, his fingernails digging in more with each word, his eyes now ringed with red, and a husky bloodlust present in his tone, "It would be _nothing,_" he trailed his fingers down the back of the old man's neck, fingernails still imbedded, ripping his flesh in the kind of cut that never heals, "_Nothing!,_ Compared to what your actions have done to me these years." He withdrew from the man, discreetly wiping his claws on his yukata sleeve. He toned his voice down to a whisper and leaned in so close the man could feel this… thing's breath on his ear. "I think I will let you suffer. I will watch, and wait. You will wait. But hear me now. I will get my revenge, one way or another. May it be a slip of the hand during 'training', a 'nuke-nin', or an unfortunate incident after the mission, I. Will. Kill. You." He withdrew from the man, and bowed to the Hokage, but not apologising once. The bridge builder wondered for a second if his yukata were dyed from blood.

"Naruto," the Sandaime said gingerly, "If you don't want to take this mission…" He stopped when he saw the blond's hand raise into the air, silencing him.

"I know what I want. I will do whatever it takes to get it. _Even_," he snarled, "No-good bridge builders. _Even_ the one that made me… this." The Hokage's reassuring smile faded at the edges. The rest of the room looked on, perplexed.

"Don't even think it." The blond said before the Hokage could open his mouth. "I have never been wrong." He paused, grimacing. His mouth opened and shut for a few seconds, a few 'ak's coming out before he managed to choke out "I said it already. I will… accept the mission." The Hokage sighed a big mushroom-cloud sigh.

"Then it is settled. Meet at the Great Gate in one hour. Say your goodbyes. Pack your things for at least a month. Kakashi, you were meant to be there two hours before now, so don't be late." Everyone filed out of the room, except the two confused genin.

"Don't we get a say in _any_ of this???"

-time skip no jutsu-

-タイムスキップノジュツ-

At the gate, Kakashi was arriving, a surprising 5 minutes late, and Team 7 was finally managing to get to grips with Kakashi's sense of timing.

"Okay team, let's go!" he yelled, expecting someone to be angry at his lateness. No response. "Okay then… Aren't I late?" Everyone present sweat-dropped, and Sasuke managed to grunt a 'no'. The copy-nin sighed, and sunk into depression, kneeling down in the corner, sobbing out his troubles.

-time skip no jutsu-

-タイムスキップノジュツ-

By the time Kakashi was finished being all emo, Naruto was about to jab his eye with an extra-sharp chopstick. It was now officially his favourite past-time. However, just as he was pulling his arm away for the strike, the copy-nin jumped up, evading the attack, and yelled, "ARE WE LATE YET?"

Maybe he should try a sharpened pencil next time, for better results.

"YEEESSSSSSSS!" was the reply from an irate Sakura.

Maybe a senbon… but he might have to pay damages… and he didn't want to do that…

"Can we just get this show on the road now?" asked (another) irate avenger.

"For once, I agree with him." Naruto, annoyed, settled with poking Kakashi in the small of the back, causing him to almost topple over. (Try this. If you know someone who slouches a lot, jab them really hard in the small of the back when they're slouching, and they'll either be forced to sit up, or fall over.) The Intrepid Team 7 (pfft!) strode through the gates into the rest of the world. Yay!

-time skip no jutsu-

-タイムスキップノジュツ-

Sakura was bored. Sasuke was bored. More importantly, though, Naruto was bored. He was bored of being serene. Why did he have to be serene anyway? Why? And why was it so hot? Were the elements conspiring against him or something? And why in the hell was that bridge builder looking at him all the time? So what if he left a scar on the back on his neck? He didn't have to look at him like that did he? 'What if he's a paedophile…?'

…

Leaving that thought…

-Somewhere else-

Orochimaru sneezed violently, spraying into the open arm of his current experiment, and knocking Kabuto's glasses off his nose. The glass in the viewing windows of some of his subjects, and some of the containers for liquid-sustained subjects, cracked into thousands of pieces. Chaos was everywhere. The experiments that were still alive ran out through the windows towards the light, and the dead ones… Well…

Orochimaru found himself on the receiving end of _a look_.

"What?" Kabuto gave him another _look_, one which would have been a lot more sinister if he still had his glasses. "You didn't expect this village to be called 'sound' if its leader didn't have some awesome sound-related abilities, like breaking glass, right?"

Kabuto sighed. It was going to be a long day.

-Back to the main storyline-

Damn, it was hot. And not just hot, either. It was boiling. Without another thought, the jinchuuriki reached down to his obi and pulled out a blood red…

'Fan?' Sakura melted. No. Really. Well, practically. And then she proceeded to sidle up to Naruto to catch just one waft of cool air, but, instead, she nearly got her head chopped off. Yes, it would seem that Naruto was practising his kenjutsu style, anrui, 案類, or silent tears. Somehow he managed to work his kata white still walking forwards. Amazing. The powers-that-be at work –cough-. Of course, no-one realised that he was actually doing anything. To them, he was just fooling around with some fans, but details schmetails.

That was, until Kakashi got jabbed in his 'one good eye' by a particularly awry fan, after which Naruto flicked the fan open, made a downward slash into the air, and sashayed away, into the distance, aka 5 metres. Saddened, Sakura moved back over to Sasuke and resumed pestering him for a date. Yeah right.

---

54 rejections and still going strong, the group was rapidly losing their will to live. Kakashi was nursing his now-bleeding eye, and wondering why in the seven hells he took on a team of genin anyway. It was just after Sakura got rejected another time when he felt a dangerous chakra spike from the left… in the ground? He turned, trying not to get anyone's attention, very slightly to the left to see what was happening. Unfortunately the blood rather impaired his vision in his right eye, and his hitai-ite rendered his left eye practically useless, so he couldn't do much when he saw – or rather, didn't see – a chain coming at him and wrapping around his body very slightly, in fact all he could do was to look on in terrified awe as he saw a yellow flash, and was pulled out of their clasp by an unknown someone. With the vision of his sensei in his eyes, he passed out cold.

Who ever knew that Kakashi was a wuss?

---

Naruto was carrying a dead weight.

The attack went rather smoothly on their account. After Kakashi's fainting spell for no apparent reason, the team managed to contain and interrogate the newly-named 'Demon Brothers'. While Sakura managed to keep her lunch down, Naruto and Sasuke managed to find out that they worked under the shipping magnate Gatou, after making them cough up pieces of their lungs, and were after the old man Tazuna. Pfft. As if he cared. Oh wait, he did, because **he** had to kill Tazuna. No-one else. Kukukuku-

"-Kukukukukukukukukuku" etc.

Everyone backed away, slowly, except from the unconscious Kakashi, but you had to make sacrifices in the shinobi world. Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna all paid their last respects to the copy-nin's sanity, and headed off for the wave.

-A/N no jutsu-

Meh… these chapters are just getting shorter and shorter. Sorry for the late upload, but I had to go to my karate lessons, and then I went up to London for my sister's performance platform (which was great), and THEN I had to catch up on all my GCSE course-work. I think I am failing my life. Oh well.

Please do review if you read it and like. Or don't like. Or whatever. Because I seriously doubt that only just over 1 of the people who read this like it. Or think it's worth of writing one or two words for. Please? Make an old (pfft!) woman happy?


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: This crap piece of writing is DEFINITELY not to be associated with Naruto in any sort of way. That would be an insult to Masashi Kishimoto-sama who owns Naruto. I own nothing but the clothes on my back, a pillow, and my hobo-gloves, with matching sleeping-bag.

_Naruto was carrying a dead weight._

_The attack went rather smoothly on their account. After Kakashi's fainting spell for no apparent reason, the team managed to contain and interrogate the newly-named 'Demon Brothers'. While Sakura managed to keep her lunch down, Naruto and Sasuke managed to find out that they worked under the shipping magnate Gatou, after making them cough up pieces of their lungs, and were after the old man Tazuna. Pfft. As if he cared. Oh wait, he did, because __**he**__ had to kill Tazuna. No-one else. Kukukuku-_

"_-Kukukukukukukukukuku" etc._

_Everyone backed away, slowly, except from the unconscious Kakashi, but you had to make sacrifices in the shinobi world. Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna all paid their last respects to the copy-nin's sanity, and headed off for the wave._

---

For a second, take your mind back to the beginning(ish) of the wave arc. We are at Tsunami's house. Kinda. Out-side-of, really, but WHO CARES?

-Flashback no jutsu-

-フワシュバックのじゅつ-

Tazuna was still reeling from the lung episode, but his shakiness and stumbling could be mistaken for a heavy drunken stupor. How he managed to get more and more drunk the further they got along, without even drinking anything, was beyond anyone's comprehension, but hey. Whatever floats your boat. And they really needed this boat afloat at the moment, because only two people in the vicinity could stand on water, and Kakashi severely doubted if the rest could swim. Kakashi was broken out of his musing by a cold feeling at his foot.

'That's odd,' thought he, 'Maybe I'm not wearing socks under my ninja sandals today…' He looked down to make sure of this. 'Yep. But that's odd. Why's there water in the boat? Did someone take a leak when I wasn't looking?' To Kakashi, this was completely plausible. That was, until he saw the little fountain of water in the boat next to an abandoned kunai.

"Holy crap! It's a pipe bomb!" yelled he.

"Yaaaaaay!" screamed everyone else.

"… Just kidding. But there is a LEAK IN THE BOAT!" While everyone else was freaking out and pretty much just yelling obscenities, Kakashi 'chidori'd the water, for all the good that did, ('He's just being flashy…' thought the rest of the boat personnel), and started rowing for his life. Literally. Because there was a MAN-EATING SHARK behind them. (Little did they know, it was actually Kisame swimming laps before he went nuke-nin, and that was the straw on the camel's back that forced him to leave Kirigakure because everyone thought he was a shark. Sad. TT)

-Flashback no jutsu, **release!**-

-フワシュバックのじゅつ、**かい！**-

Due to this disruption, they got to Tsunami's house much faster than they thought. Kakashi sighed. He was wet, cold, hungry, and he smelt…

"Fooooooooooooooooooo…"

Team 7 + entourage sweat dropped, as Kakashi's leaving words echoed, while the man himself sped off into the distance (5 metres) into the house (shack-thingie).

"…oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!" This was what Tsunami heard as the first thing to show her father was back home. The first thing she saw was an old man with a receding hairline ("Hey!"), effectively concealed by hitai-ite ("HEY!!"), waiting with a chopstick in each hand, banging on the table in time with his chants of "Food! Food! Food!" Shortly, the rest of the group entered, removing their sandals, and bowing to the house, Naruto included, even if he ended up with some burst veins, and a permanent tic in his right eye. He could live with this. Twitch. Twitch.

"Foooooohed!" Kakashi was moaning now. You could almost see him rolling around on the floor somewhere. Sasuke walked over to where Kakashi was salivating on the floor, and nudged him in the cheek with his foot. The copy-nin rolled over and tried to grab at Sasuke to eat him.

"Hey!" yelled the raven, "The Authoress is right! He **does** have a receding hairline!" While Kakashi readied his chidori, Sasuke manic-laughed, and Naruto gave Tazuna the heebie-jeebies, Sakura bowed and pleaded forgiveness for her teams 'idiocity'. Apparently they 'couldn't help it'. Coff.

First Impression: Chaos.

---

Luckily for Team 7 and co. as soon as you got some food down Kakashi's gullet, he'd pipe down. They found this out as soon as Tsunami called out "Dinner's up" very, very quietly, for fear of Kashi's hearing. Ah well. Such is life.

Sadly, without Kakashi's incessant rambling (role reversal, anyone?), all anyone could do was stare in awe as a certain bl- cough, blondie ate his fish **without looking! **ZOMG!!!

Sheesh. Some people are so slow.

Some people eat slow as well. Why these people didn't just eat instead of watching him, he'd never know. It was getting on his nerves. Grr…

Apparantly, some people were a little sore about him being able to eat like that.

"Why do you even bother trying?" Whoop-dee-doo. Inari. Yay.

"Well, 'cause I have to eat, I just learnt to, you know?" Naruto turned his un-seeing gaze towards the Inari-child, but he was being too melodramatic to notice.

"Not the food, you numpty! Although that **is** rather cool, I meant Gatou! He's going to kill you all, and you're all going to die horrible, gruesome, twisted deaths with mutilated appendages and your eyes torn out!!!" Oh, yay. As the room got uncharacteristically dark for it being the middle of the day, Inari, Tsunami and Tazuna all turned rather robotically to the corner place of the table to see the blond's reaction.

…

…

"That's OK for me then!" At this, he jumped up from the floor, and bounded over to his teammates and sensei, and patted them on the head sympathetically. "Sakura," _Pat._ "Sas_uke," Slap._ "**Kakashi-sensei!!!**" _Noogie._ "Good luck with that. Kakashi, I pity you if your 'One Good Eye' quote unquote is taken, I really do!" _Noogie._ _Sadistic voice._ Sakura looked at the blond with this 'what-is-up-with-you-freak!' look.

"Why aren't you worried about your self, loser?" She screamed. Ouch. Cover ears now.

"Oh, appendages, yeah." Naruto pulled out one of his trump cards here, to shut everyone up. "_Eyes, now __**eyes**__, I can handle."_ Yes, you guessed right, It's the Yamato eyes, except minus eyes, so just… oh whatever, I'm sure you can visualise this anyway, so I'll save your brain. A unanimous shiver Mexican-waved its way across the room, from Sakura on his right, through Kakashi, Sasuke, Inari, Tazuna, Tsunami and then it headed back again. Naruto let this repeat a few times before interjecting.

"As fun as it was to feel the waves of fear rolling off you, could you show me to a place I could put my things, Tsunami-san?" Tsunami jerked upright and shook off her shiver-skin, and replaced it with a 'Happy-Smile!!!'.

"I'll just show you to your room then!" _Smile. Smile._

"Oh, that's quite alright!" _Grimace. Grimace… I mean… Smile._

"Oh, no, I insist!" _SMILE! SMILE!_

"Oh, no that's perfectly fine! I sleep under the stars!" _MANIC GRIN!_

…

"oO"

"Well, I'll be off then, training to be done, trees to fell, you know!"

…

_Slam._

"What. The PUCK was that?"

-A/N no jutsu-

Am running out of steam, time, and food. And suffixes, names, good music, ideas, etc. Please tell me anything I need to improve on, and if any of you write fiction HOW THE HELL DO YOU KEEP MOTIVATED TO WRITE LONG CHAPTERS?

I swear, it's like "Oh, I'll write a REAL long chapter this time!"

3 pages later… "That ought to do it!"

Meh… This fiction is becoming crack… Maybe I should change its name and stuff to make it a crack fiction.

Please R&R to save me from the depths of depression.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I will not never ever own Naruto before I am very, very rich and then I will buy all its rights! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! YAOI AND JUSTICE FOR ALL! –Coff- Yes…

---

The sun was just past set in the woods, the trees were lit a dark mahogany, and the air had a feint scent of mint and jasmine; a relaxing environment for partaking in such activities as picnicking, or gathering herbs. Sadly, this was not the case for this particular wood, as it was now to be frequented by Konoha shinobi, and one in particular.

_Thock._

'Damn,' the blond-haired shinobi punched at a training log courtesy of Kakashi. 'How come every time someone says something about my sight I recede behind this… this façade?! I don't understand it!' Taking out his frustrations of the log slightly, he fumed. 'I don't know what's happening to me! I feel so helpless…' The shinobi was so caught up in his anger that he didn't notice a figure coming towards him form the bushes. He made for one last punch when he felt someone's breath on his ear and the cold, sharp feeling of metal above his adam's apple.

"Who?" he grunted out, feeling the kunai grazing his throat when he spoke.

"Oh," the figure replied, "I think you know very well who I am, _Naruto-kun._" When there was no reply, he murmured, "Maybe you remember how I did this…" Their finger trailed down the front of the blond's yukata slowly, snaking around every contour before coming to rest at the low-riding obi. "Maa, Naruto-kun, you dress so suggestively, almost like a whore!" The figure fingered the yukata's waistband before yanking the blond around to face them. _'Ta…'_ "Even so, I forgive you." The man fisted the long blond hair and whispered, "You remember me now?"

"Tazuna," the blond grated out, and the bridge-builder smirked. "Almost," the old man's smirk was audible in his voice, "But not the Tazuna you know. Not the one from all those years ago, that did _this_ to you." The old man smirked, and the blond shuddered.

"Who, then?"

"Let me tell you of the Sannin. You have heard of them, I presume." When he got no answer, he continued. "There were three Sannin: three genius nin, one of which left the village for… better things." The man felt the boy under him tense and his breathing shallow. "I see you know who I am now."

The boy he was holding gathered his wits and asked "Why?"

"Why?" He paused and placed a finger on his lips, before continuing. "It all helps, you know. A ninja village all for my self. This man was the greatest stepping stone: he had skills that I could put to a good use. I figured that if I built a bridge for this country they would be indebted to this man and they would feel an obligation to make him a leader. Then I would have control over the whole country, and a new ninja nation would be formed – the Village Hidden in the Waves. And it could still happen, is happening even, and you can't stop me."

The bridge-builder pulled the blond closer to him and fondled his neck, almost lovingly. "Your neck, so nice, so _clean_." His head bent down to nibble the blond's ear, and whispered, "I want it too, you know. It's not right, this body in your body, and me not feeling any of it." The blond just stood in shock while the man's wandering hands moved lower and lower.

'Tazuna…' The memories were coming again, hard and fast, sympathetic to the world outside, blocking out all feeling of the old man's probing hands. He didn't notice the man fingering him as he remembered all the things he'd locked away permanently. Even as the man started on him he remembered the things that'd happened, and gave a helpless little moan. To the man outside, the moan didn't mean unhappiness. A long time later he pulled himself out and caressed the blond's cheek affectionately.

"How perfect you are… How much more perfect you could be." The man's eyes glinted as he took in the figure, still partly clothed with his yukata, and pinned down the blond, neck exposed, and while the blond laid prostrate, eyes flashing with images of his past, the man readied handseals for his 'perfection'. His teeth grew longer, and he swooped down to bite the blond's neck. Where before in his eyes there used to be listless helplessness, now there was pure hurt and suffering. The man's eyes, amber as venom, looked on with something akin to admiration, before pressing a pressure point in the blond's temple and leaving.

"Goodbye, Naruto-kun."

---

Light filtered through the leaves, the swishing sound just like in Konoha. As much as he hated that pathetic hell-hole, he couldn't help but feel the tug of 'home' every time a leaf fell. Not today though. Dull, lifeless, blue eyes jolted open to the teasing sun and feathery wisps of hair. His fuzzy mind collected that something was weighing down his shoulder.

"Wake up, little one," a soft voice sung, and the blond sat up, prising the hand off his shoulder. He scanned the clearing and saw only a rather… effeminate, yeah, effeminate boy kneeling a few inches from him.

"Hunter-san."

"Shinobi-san." The boy tilted his head and smiled. "You pulled quite a number on my danna-sama, Zabuza. I take it that it was not just blindly fumbling about with kenjutsu on the trip." Naruto shook his head out of the clouds, '_These are negotiations with the enemy, dammit',_ and replied.

"You are right. I could see you." He tapped his fingers to his hitai-ite knowingly, and almost smiled. Haku nodded, nonplussed. He could tell this guy was blind, but he couldn't feel any chakra pulses or anything, so how could he see? "Even though you were dressed as a hunter, I could tell you weren't shinobi. No blood, see?" Haku sighed, perhaps a bit sad that his disguise was seen through, but happy that he didn't smell of blood. Although Zabuza was important to him… he didn't think he could **kill** for him. "This man, Zabuza… He is important to you?" Haku nodded eagerly, as though this boy had read his thoughts. "Foolish emotions."

"But!" Haku gasped. "Precious people! They… they make you stronger! I fight only for Zabuza! If not for him I would be not half the man I am today!" The boy opposite his slowly stood up.

"Then I will look forward to your demise, _Hunter-san_." The blond stalked off in the direction of the bridge, but a few metres along, he faltered.

'I'm hungry. Time to get me some breakfast.'

-A/N no Jutsu-

Meh…

Only 3 pages… 2 and a half…

I am finding myself slowly losing the will to live… and write this story…

So much homework.

Motivate me please! Plotline ideas! Nicknames! OCs!

Longer chapters or shorter chapters? I find I'm good -[scratches out- better at shorter chapters than longer ones. Please tell me what you want, because I only write for you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you…

Etc.

_Read and review please!_ It's polite.


	7. This story is dying

The story has died.

I drowned trying to be too deep.

Thank you for your patience as I attempt to revive it.

I think I'm going to completely rehaul it first because my writing has been really terrible in some places.

The story-line is now non-existant.

I could write all my faults but I might commit seppuku, plus, I'd probably get kicked off for all the bandwidth usage.

Thanks again for your patience, all my long-suffering readers.

Qwerty TT-TT


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